On the body and the soul

In Nietzsche’s Twilight of the Idols, an excerpt of an aphorism numbered 47 reads: “It is decisive for the fortune of nations and of mankind that one should inaugurate culture in the right place –not in the ‘soul’…: the right place is the body, demeanor, diet, physiology: the rest follows… This is why the Greeks remain the supreme cultural event of history – they knew, they did what needed to be done; Christianity, which despise the body, has up till now been mankind’s greatest misfortune.” Last night, I wondered if any of the old timers in philosophy gave great importance to fitness. I found, flipping through Nietzsche’s book, which at least he does. What Nietzsche conquers splendidly abolishes our need for inane idols, our tendency to devote ourselves to theological aims and neglect our animal inheritance. This is still a rather primitive society. But at least I now know that not all of my personal idols abandoned the importance of the body. Not known for being benevolent to his writings, I’d say that long before he came along with his predicament, there already was a Latin proverb that made an emphasis on the same subject: “A healthy mind in a healthy body.” Also, Schopenhauer, a generation before, had declaimed that the most important thing in life is good health.